One of the most interesting aspects of Oklahoma's matchup with Stanford in El Paso, Texas, is the homecoming of Sooner quarterback Landry Jones. Jones grew up in Artesia, N.M., just three hours away from El Paso. On Monday, Jones talked about he matchup with Stanford and the excitement of returning back to his roots for a bowl game.

Q: What do you think about the match up in this game with Stanford?Landry Jones: I'm excited to play Stanford, They seem like a physical team, they're obviously a good team. They've lost a couple of close games so I'm excited to go down there and play them.

Q: Playing on the west coast they had a couple of late games, did you ever get to see them on TV?Jones: I watched them a little bit when they played USC. They looked pretty impressive, so we'll have our hands full with them.

Q: You won't face the offense but obviously that's their bread and butter with Gerhart and Luck?Jones: Yeah, they have a good offense. They're balanced, Gerhart's up for the Heisman and I know Luck a little bit, we went to camps together and he's a really good quarterback. It will be an exciting game.

Q: I heard a lot of talk on radio shows about how this will mean more to Stanford since they haven't been to a bowl game since 2001. But couldn't you counter-attack that with the fact that it's been a while since you guys won a bowl game?Jones: Right, we want to go down there and just get a win. Obviously we want to play to the best of our ability and get a victory against a solid opponent.

Q: For you, how valuable is the extra practice time you'll get in the next couple of weeks?Jones: It's really valuable. To have a couple of weeks to study Stanford, it will be good preparation for me.

Q: But even despite the bowl game, it seems like these 20 extra practices would benefit you later down the road and maybe even into next season.Jones: Yeah, anytime you can go out there and get into a semi-game situation and throw to your receivers with an offensive line in front of you it's great experience.

Q: What is an opening Monday like during bowl preparation?Jones: Today we went through our regular plays. It's more like a regular Monday practice for us.

Q: Are these practices more laid back than they are during the season?Jones: A little bit, maybe just because we don't have as many coaches there like we normally would. But I feel like we brought some good intensity in practice today.

Q: Last year during these practices it looked like you worked a little extra hard because it was almost the prelude to spring ball and it looked like you were trying to get a jump start to the spring. Right now is that was a guy like Drew Allen is going through?Jones: I don't know if it becomes more "real" to him, but reps wise, it was really good for me because I got most of the reps. That's how it is a little right now, we're splitting them but he's definitely getting more snaps than he normally would. It will be good for him to get these practices.

Q: Have you ever been to El Paso?Jones: I've been there a lot. It's only about three hours away from where I live.

Q: What's it like?Jones: It's similar to Lubbock, maybe a little bigger.

Q: Were you excited when you found out you would be playing so close to home?Jones: It's pretty exciting to get to go back near where I grew up. Hopefully I'll have a lot of people from Artesia go to the game. I'm excited to head back to that part of the country.

Q: What's the population of Artesia?Jones: 12,000 people.

Q: How many do you think will make the trip?Jones: I have no idea. I haven't talked to anybody to see.

Q: They recruited you pretty hard at Stanford didn't they?Jones: Yeah, Coach Harbaugh came down to my school after basketball practice one day and we got to talk a little bit. I really liked Stanford and I liked Coach Harbaugh.